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From Adam Sedgwick 30 May 1870

Cambridge

May 30 1870

My dear Darwin

Your very kind letter surprised me— Not that I was surprised at the pleasant & very welcome feeling with which it was written.1 But I could not make out what I had done to deserve the praise of “extraordinary kindness of yourself & family”. I would most willingly have done my best to promote the objects of your visit but you gave me no opportunity of doing so. I was truly grieved to find that my joy at seeing you again was almost too robust for your state of nerves, & that my society, after a little while, became oppressive to you. But I do trust that your Cambridge visit has done you no constitutional harm—nay rather that it has done you some good— I only speak honest truth when I say that I was overflowing with joy when I saw you; & saw you in the midst of a dear family party & solaced at every turn by the loving care of a dear Wife & Daughters.2 How different from my position—that of a very old man, living in cheerless solitude!

You were talking about my style of writing— I send you my last specimen; & it will probably continue to be my last— It is the continuation of a former Pamphlet of which I have not one spare copy— I do not ask you to read it.3 It is addressed to the old people in my native Dale of Dent, on the outskirts of Westmorland—while standing at the door of the old vicarage I can see down the valley the Lake mountains—Hill Bell at the head of Windermere about 20 miles off—4 On Thursday next D.V.5 I am to start for Dent which I have not visited for full two years.— Two years ago I could walk three or four miles with comfort— Now, alas!, I can only hobble about on my stick